Unlock the secrets for a compelling newsletter with these 44 customizable real estate newsletter topics. Next stop: Elevating your newsletter game and connecting with your audience effectively!
The post 29 Real Estate Newsletter Ideas That Convert in 2025 appeared first on AgentFire.
A lockout period is a specific, predetermined amount of time after the loan’s origination in which the loan cannot be prepaid. Lockout periods, when present, are defined within the loan contract and can be a negotiable condition in some situations. Since these periods can vary significantly from one organization to the next, investors should pay close attention to their presence and what they may mean … Read More
The post Understanding Lockout Period in Commercial Real Estate first appeared on CommLoan.
Investors typically need to take into consideration a wide range of factors before purchasing property, including the cost to demolish existing structures that may no longer fit the specific needs and objectives of the land’s use going forward. Calculating the value property while factoring in demolition cost is critical to do this.
What is the Average Cost of Commercial Demolition Per Square Foot?
Typical costs … Read More
The post How Much Do Commercial Demolition Cost Per Square Foot? first appeared on CommLoan.
Return on equity (ROE) is a ratio used to measure the profitability of a real estate investment in comparison to shareholders’ stakes in the property. It shows how effectively an investment’s capital is being used to generate profits and thus is helpful when evaluating properties being considered or already in a portfolio.
Calculating ROE is a fairly straightforward process and something that every real estate … Read More
The post ROE Formula: How to Calculate Return on Equity (ROE) first appeared on CommLoan.
Commercial real estate investors need a solid understanding of just how much they’re putting into properties and other assets. The capital expenditures (CapEx) formula shows just that. Here’s how to calculate and use CapEx in commercial real estate investing.
What are Capital Expenses (CapEx) in Real Estate?
Capital expenses are the costs necessary for acquiring, maintaining, and improving physical assets. Commercial real estate primarily involves … Read More
The post Capital Expenditure Formula: How to Calculate CapEx first appeared on CommLoan.
Warehouse space is valuable for many organizations. Due to the increased demand for consumer online purchases rather than in-store purchases, there has been a much higher demand for high-quality, accessible warehouse space in key markets. For investors, it is critical to determine if there is profit potential in purchasing a warehouse to meet revenue goals in a highly competitive industry sector.
What is Considered a … Read More
The post How to Buy a Warehouse: A Guide to Warehouse Investment first appeared on CommLoan.
Marketing is part science, part art. There are systems and strategies that you can implement to help make promoting your brand and engaging with customers faster, easier, and more replicable. But without adding the human element (that’s you!), you risk putting off customers by delivering generic messaging and running into compliance issues by not properly vetting your lead sources.
Our own VP of Marketing, Donnie Kenneth, joined Justin Ulrich of Evocalize on their Local Marketing Lab podcast to share how loan officers can bring personalization to their marketing automation, lead-gen strategies for the upcoming year, and how to fuel long-term growth by prioritizing relationships over transactions.
The post The Future of Compliant Lead Generation [Evocalize podcast] appeared first on Total Expert.
The Fed rate cuts that hopeful homebuyers were waiting for are finally starting to materialize. Yet, mortgage rates haven’t immediately fallen. In fact, mortgage rates ticked up a bit in October after the first rate cut in September.
Homebuyers are anxiously wondering what’s going on—and what’s coming next. This presents a huge opportunity to earn their trust by providing education, guidance, and insights into what they can expect from the housing market in the coming months.
Mortgage lenders and loan officers (LOs) need to engage potential homebuyers to help them understand the complex dynamics and nuances of our industry. They need to help them feel (at least a little) more comfortable with what to expect. Earning their trust today will help lock in their business when they do make a mortgage-related decision—whether it’s their first home purchase, an upsize or downsize, or a long-awaited refinance.
Borrowers and homeowners want an expert they can rely on to answer their questions and offer guidance on the complicated mortgage market. Loan officers need to be able to speak as this kind of expert authority on factors influencing mortgage rates, as well as the broader housing market.
While this might be “Mortgage 101” to you, most people only have a general understanding that the “Fed rate” is important in shaping the interest rates that consumers see on mortgages and other loans. So, it can be helpful to provide your customers with a broader definition and discussion of what the “Fed rate” is, and how the Federal Reserve thinks about its decisions to raise or lower that rate.
The “Fed rate” is the federal funds rate—the interest rate at which banks lend money to each other overnight to meet reserve requirements set by the Federal Reserve (the U.S. central bank). The Fed rate is one of the Federal Reserve’s only tools for fulfilling its “dual mandate” of maintaining stable inflation and maximizing employment.
By lowering the rate, the Fed can stimulate borrowing, spending, and hiring during economic slowdowns, boosting employment. Conversely, by raising the rate, the Fed can cool down excessive borrowing and spending, helping to control inflation when the economy is overheated.
But this is a delicate and extraordinarily difficult balance to achieve. The Fed rate is an admittedly “blunt” tool for influencing economic stability. And Fed rate changes have an infamous “long and variable lag,” meaning the impacts take months to play out.
The Fed’s decision to cut rates in September and November 2024 undoubtedly included hopes of easing the unprecedented tension in the housing market. But there are several reasons why mortgage rates aren’t following Fed rates on a linear basis:
The Fed began signaling its intention to cut rates way back in December 2023. Experts debated the timing and size of those cuts through most of 2024, but the sense of inevitability only grew stronger—peaking in August as evidenced by some anticipating emergency rate cuts and others predicting a massive .75% cut.
Many mortgage lenders took calculated risks by lowering their rates in advance of a likely Fed rate cut. The goal was to capture constrained homebuying demand by being among the first to lower their rates. By the time the Fed rate cuts were announced on September 18, most lenders had already priced in that initial .5% drop.
In other words, the mortgage market does not always respond to the federal funds, but rather anticipates where that rate is headed in the near future. This naturally leads to the other two macroeconomic factors that have actually pushed mortgage rates higher since the Fed’s September rate cut.
Jobs reports in the U.S. continue to exceed expectations, signaling broader economic strength. This strong job market persists in spite of geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds and in defiance of both historic norms and expert-predicted slowing.
Mortgage lenders look at employment data as a sign of where demand will be in the coming months. A strong economy puts no pressure on lenders to lower mortgage rates. Moreover, employment data is also a reliable indicator of what the Fed will do with its rates in the coming months. If the job market remains hot, the Fed may hold off on additional rate cuts (and rate hikes may even re-enter the conversation).
We’ve come a long way from the surging inflation we saw 18 months ago. Inflation now sits relatively close to the Fed’s 2% target. But experts always warned the “final mile” would be the most challenging.
The mortgage market looks at inflation as a signal of what the Fed will do next. Fed officials made it clear throughout 2024 that they’re anxious about easing up too early—and they’re firm on their 2% target. So, stubborn inflation may contribute to a decision to hold off on further rate cuts in the near future.
Mortgage lenders view mortgages as financial products and one of the main ways they realize value on these products is through the sale of mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
As a result, mortgage rates can be heavily influenced by investor demand for MBS: When MBS are in high demand, lenders can realize higher yields. So, they’re incentivized to lower mortgage rates to drive mortgage volume and capture those higher yields.
Right now, inflation and other factors (even lingering effects from the 2008 housing crisis) are keeping demand for MBS relatively low. So, the MBS is not putting any downward pressure on mortgage rates.
Admittedly, the four factors above are just part of what’s influencing mortgage rates. The complex interplay of various factors is hard for even experts to untangle and reliably predict.
The best advice you can give homebuyers wondering where mortgage rates are headed: Watch the Fed’s 10-year Treasury yields. This figure provides a reliable shortcut to anticipating mortgage rates, rather than trying to calculate the relative influence of various macroeconomic factors on their own.
That’s because mortgages are long-term investments. So, the mortgage market values long-term indicators over short-term signals. The federal funds rate is considered a short-term rate (for the aforementioned overnight borrowing between banks). But the 10-year Treasury yield is one of the most reliable long-term indicators. It incorporates investor sentiment about future economic strength, global economic trends, and inflation expectations.
Right now, 10-year Treasury yields remain high by historic standards. After peaking in late 2023, they hit a recent low in mid-2024 and climbed back up in recent weeks. We’ve seen mortgage rates take a very similar path over the last year.
Loan officers are likely frustrated that long-awaited rate cuts haven’t resulted in a massive surge in homebuying. And they’re certainly not excited to see mortgage rates ticking up recently. But these pains his potential homebuyers even harder.
The best strategy at the moment is to lean into an empathetic approach: Recognize that homebuyers are feeling even more frustrated and confused by the mortgage market. This presents a tremendous opportunity to meet homebuyers where they’re at—engaging them with helpful education on what’s happening in the mortgage market right now.
Providing this much-needed support and guidance around how and when the Fed rate will impact mortgage interest rates can build invaluable trust and sow the seeds for long-term loyalty. So, when the time is right, you’ll be their first call.
Hear what Total Expert Founder & CEO Joe Welu and Chief Lending Officer Dan Catinella think lenders and loan officers can expect if rates continue to drop on the Expert Insights Podcast >
The post How to Engage Your Customers About the Fed Rate Cuts appeared first on Total Expert.
Leaders of banks, credit unions, and other financial services organizations have been on a roller coaster over the last five years. Signs suggest some of that disarray will settle in 2025 as interest rates drop and inflationary pressures ease. Yet, according to Deloitte, the top challenge for financial institutions in 2025 will be adapting to what it calls a “low-growth, low-rate” environment, where a mix of slower consumer spending, higher unemployment, and lingering geopolitical and regulatory uncertainties keep us teetering on the edge of a recession that’s been threatening the last three years.
But leaders need to resist rash reactions to these anxieties because, as we’ve said before, financial institutions can’t cut their way to growth. Those that pull back too strongly on investing in innovation will quickly damage customer experience and hurt long-term loyalty—and won’t be ready to capture opportunities when conditions do begin to turn around.
Success in 2025 depends on thinking beyond the next quarter. Financial institutions need to build enterprise-level strategies that position their businesses for long-term success.
So, what does that long-term, enterprise-level strategy look like?
Think back to the five years leading up to the start of the pandemic: Things were good. Many financial institutions saw such high business volume that they were just trying to get the transactions done. Strategies became ad hoc and short-term—making quick hires to throw people at the problem and/or piling on point-solution products that promise to solve specific issues.
We can look past the pandemic period of 2020-2021 as a (hopefully) once-in-a-century anomaly. But when rates started increasing in 2022 and the economy slowed down, the transactional focus of many financial institutions led to some knee-jerk reactions: cutting costs, cutting staff, and cutting vendor expenses.
The economy proved surprisingly resilient, holding off the recession that was forecast in 2022 and 2023. Some financial institutions saw volume bounce back—forcing them to quickly add staff and develop ad hoc strategies to keep up.
Today, we’re back to worrying about a slowdown. We’re seeing major banks worldwide announce significant job cuts, with Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs all making huge layoffs.
The most successful financial institutions over the last several years (and, more broadly, the most successful businesses across all sectors) share a common strategy: They didn’t enact massive cuts. In fact, many invested more, doubling down on building the best tech stack and developing extremely efficient processes.
There are two outcomes of this double-down strategy:
A great example of this is Lake Michigan Credit Union: As rates rose over the last two and a half years, this credit union’s mortgage volumes stayed far higher than most.
Why? Because when the refi boom occurred back in 2020-2021, Lake Michigan CU stayed the course on its overall strategy of balancing purchase and refi business. They didn’t over-index on refi, so they were able to stay consistent through the down economy.
Moreover, they continued to evolve and advance their tech stack. Bet on them to be at the front of the line to capture volume when it returns.
Learn more in our case study with Lake Michigan Credit Union >
How can financial institution leaders take a long view on positioning themselves for success when the economy turns around?
Here are three key pillars of a long-term strategy:
Financial institutions generally have three main pools of data: accounting, marketing, and IT. These data pools are typically not well integrated—and short-term strategies tend to only reinforce those data silos.
To effectively leverage data to interact and prospect, financial institutions need to develop an enterprise-wide data strategy that integrates all their data to unlock new insights and drive better outcomes. The benefits of consolidated data management will almost inevitably come in the form of better marketing ROI, improved customer interactions, and even increased profitability.
Today, we’re seeing more and more financial institutions hiring consultants to help them design this kind of overarching data strategy—delineating how data will be aggregated and integrated. A comprehensive data strategy will also set data governance policies to ensure data is cleaned and protected—and define how compliance teams handle data to ensure sensitive data is locked down properly.
Leading financial institutions are doubling down on tech investments, particularly around reducing friction points in their customer experiences (CX) and employee experiences (EX). Building a tech stack that works seamlessly together often means consolidation. Following an analysis, the financial institution will work to remove duplicative or point products and replace them with widely adopted, comprehensive platforms.
For customers, that means delivering omnichannel, predictive, and hyper-personalized experiences. For employees, it means connecting data silos and making it easy for them to get the information and workflows they need to be productive.
The short-term, transactional approach treats staff as fungible resources: When volume goes down, financial institutions lay off employees. Because when volume comes back, it seems easy to just hire additional people.
This approach overlooks the reality that the value of employees largely depends on their experience.
Moreover, training is the only shortcut to experience. A smart, long-term strategy focuses on maximizing the value of a financial institution’s human resources. Building strong internal processes and training programs will ensure employees are both able to execute well within your environment and enable you to more efficiently and effectively onboard new staff if you need to add people to accommodate volume.
Right now, we’re seeing a sharp divide in how financial institutions are reacting to slowing growth amid other persistent economic anxieties and uncertainties.
It feels like half of financial institution leaders are waking up every day scared—and letting those emotions guide an overall strategy toward a much shorter-term focus. Of course, it’s human nature to get concerned when revenues drop. The natural temptation is to slash costs and take a month-to-month or quarter-by-quarter view on survival. But it’s never smart to let emotions guide enterprise strategy.
The other half are doubling down—continuing to focus on improving CX and deepening loyalty. They’re building scalable business models that will let them pounce on opportunities, without the chaos and costs of having to scramble to add people and build ad hoc processes when the moment of opportunity hits.
Total Expert General Manager of Banking James White says, “It isn’t about cutting costs. It’s about giving your organization the ability to generate more revenue for every dollar spent.”
Cutting back and focusing on survival is a risky proposition. By doubling down on what you need to win loyalty today and capture volume in the future, your financial institution will be able to differentiate from transaction-focused financial institutions—and win the long game by earning customers for life.
—
Building deeper customer relationships starts by truly understanding your customers’ financial needs and goals. Learn how Total Expert Customer Intelligence can give you the insights you need to engage your customers in more meaningful conversations.
The post Prioritizing Lifetime Loyalty: Thinking Beyond the Next Quarter appeared first on Total Expert.
FinTech software doesn’t suffer from a supply-and-demand problem. There are dozens of powerful, innovative tools and technologies that modern financial institutions can leverage to simplify and streamline their operations, lead management, sales outreach, and marketing campaigns.
The challenge is identifying which solutions best meet your organization’s needs and creating a tech stack that’s free from redundancies and excessive strains on your budget. That’s why we created the Total Expert Marketplace: to help you search, select, and secure the integrations you need to get the most out of your tech stack.
The Total Expert Marketplace is designed to be a one-stop digital shop that features easy-to-integrate technologies at every stage. Our goal is to help financial institutions of all sizes find innovative tech solutions that expand and enhance their existing investment in the Total Expert platform. Every partner in the Total Expert Marketplace is carefully chosen to provide out-of-the-box integrations that users can leverage quickly to deliver the experiences their customers deserve. This a la carte approach allows each Total Expert customer to implement only the solutions they need as their business grows, making it effortlessly scalable and ensuring compliance at every turn.
We also invite Marketplace Partners to collaborate with the Total Expert team to ensure that every integration with the Total Expert platform provides the frictionless functionality our customers need to deliver the perfect financial journey and maximize the lifetime value of every customer or member.
Capacity is a support automation platform that uses AI to answer questions and automate repetitive tasks. The Total Expert integration allows users to perform various functions from Total Expert, like searching and creating contacts, adding notes, and more—all through chat or text.
Adwerx is an industry-leading digital advertising automation platform that provides personalized, hyper-targeted, and fully automated digital advertising solutions for mortgage lending companies and their top loan officers. Adwerx provides an easy-to-use, affordable advertising solution that exposes your brand to new audiences and deepens relationships with your most valuable contacts.
Simplicity in a complex business: Multiply your growth through actionable intelligence in mortgage recruiting and overall mortgage market analytics.
Verse.ai is a powerful two-way conversation platform that combines AI with SMS to enable compliant, scalable, and customizable automated texts that drive real results. Their solution helps mortgage and financial services businesses accelerate revenue growth by actively engaging and converting leads while simultaneously assisting with cutting costs by streamlining operations, reducing operational spending, and enhancing efficiency.
Dynamic direct mail marketing delivers a targeted marketing strategy that allows you to send personalized mail pieces directly to customers or prospects. This can all be done automatically by interacting with Total Expert’s journey automation. By leveraging the DirectMailers creative team and delivery best practices, you will be able to automate personalized, compliant mailings that can be tracked for delivery and engagement to drive better ROI out of your direct mail campaigns.
Experience.com is a pioneering SaaS platform with top-tier AI-powered solutions for online reputation and experience management. They drive enhanced online visibility and boost customer and employee engagement. The integration with Total Expert empowers customers to convert data insights into immediate, actionable improvements that elevate customer satisfaction, foster brand loyalty, and enhance their online reputation.
Birdeye is the leading reputation, social media, and customer experience platform for local businesses and brands. Over 150,000 businesses use Birdeye’s all-in-one platform to effortlessly manage their online reputation, grow their social presence, connect digitally, and improve customer experiences.
Clever leverages its premier agent-matching technology, data insights, and network of realtors to simplify the mortgage process using its engagement suite, rewards ecosystem, and home concierge to help businesses grow and enhance borrower engagement.
“Adwerx and Total Expert have been collaborating closely for years. So, when the opportunity to officially join the Total Expert Marketplace came up, we eagerly embraced it. Our regular team meetings provide invaluable insights and generate real opportunities for existing and potential customers. Together, we enhance our service to customers, ensuring they maximize the value of both platforms.”
– Dan London, Adwerx Chief Marketing Officer
“We are thrilled to be part of Total Expert’s Marketplace to help more organizations see the power of multi-channel direct mail marketing. We have been servicing the mortgage and banking industry for the past three decades, and partnering with Total Expert has enabled us to help more lenders see how direct mail can support marketing, from opted-in leads to closing more funded loans.”
– Richard Irwin, DirectMailers Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Fairway combines Total Expert’s Credit Inquiry Alerts with their DirectMailers integrations to ensure they provide a Firm Offer of Credit (FOC) to every contact they monitor for credit inquiry activity. Financial institutions are legally required to provide an FOC via traditional mail or email within a specific timeframe once an alert has been delivered for any credit inquiries pulled through a credit bureau.
The DirectMailers integration allows Fairway to automatically deliver personalized FOC postcards whenever they receive a credit inquiry alert.
“The integration was easy and seamless. We worked with Total Expert directly to implement, and we were up and running quickly. Leveraging the Total Expert + Direct Mailers integration has freed up time for our team, and we no longer have to manage the process manually. Additionally, we are impressed with how easy it is to customize the postcard to ensure it reflects our needs.”
– Jaci Betor, Fairway CRM Solutions Architect
The post Build the Tech Stack Your Organization Deserves with the Total Expert Marketplace appeared first on Total Expert.
